ISTANBUL, March 27 (Reuters) - A consortium building a motorway between Gebze and Izmir in western Turkey plans to sign a $600 million loan accord with eight banks for a section of the road in April, consortium leader Nurol Holding’s chief financial officer said on Thursday.
A consortium of Nurol, Italy’s Astaldi, Ozaltin Makyol, Yuksel and Gocay Insaat won the 22-year operating rights for the highway in a 2009 tendering for a build-operate-transfer deal. Yuksel group subsequently withdrew from the consortium.
“We plan to sign a $600 million loan accord in April,” CFO Kerim Kemahli told Reuters, refering to a section of the highway being built between Orhangazi and Bursa in northwest Turkey.
“In total it looks like the cost of investment for the whole of the project will be $7.4 billion,” he added.
Last year the consortium secured a $1.4 billion, seven-year loan for the Gebze-Orhangazi section of the road with Akbank , Finansbank, Garanti Bank, Halkbank, Is Bank, Vakifbank, Yapi Kredi Bank and Ziraat Bank. (Reporting by Evrim Ergin; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Greg Mahlich)
